Traditional spare tires are being phased out

Dear Tom and Ray: My wife just bought a 2013 Kia Soul, and there is no spare tire. The salesman told us that spare tires are becoming a thing of the past. There is a small unit for putting air in the tire in case of a flat. I was just wondering, why no spare tire? What would you suggest? — Bill

Ray: I would suggest not driving behind any nail trucks, Bill.

Tom: There are a number of reasons we're seeing more and more carmakers ditch the traditional spare tire.

Ray: The first has to do with fuel economy. A spare tire adds weight. A tire-and-wheel combination easily can add 50 pounds to the weight of a car. And since every pound you carry decreases your mileage, getting rid of that spare is an easy way to get more miles per gallon.

Tom: A second reason is space. With fuel-economy concerns leading to smaller cars, making room for an extra wheel and tire is increasingly inconvenient. Most people would rather have that room for groceries, dogs or that giant heirloom Henry XVI Nose Hair Tweezer they find at a garage sale.

Ray: And then on the other side of the equation is the decreasing need for a spare tire. Flat tires are a lot less common than they used to be. Oh, they still happen. But they used to be very common. With modern tires, it's a very infrequent event for most people.

Tom: There also are other options now. There's the mini-spare (which will let you travel up to 50 miles or so), the auxiliary pump and can of Fix-A-Flat (which will work for things like nails and small punctures) and, if all else fails, there's the cellphone and credit card (which works for pretty much everything).

Ray: Those alternatives are not as failsafe as a real, full-size spare that's checked regularly and kept fully inflated. But carmakers believe that many people would rather have the space and the additional fuel economy these days.

(Car Talk is a nationally syndicated column by automotive experts (and brothers) Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Write to them at the Car Talk website.)

6 Comments

Driving around without a spare in Boston might work but it is a bad idea for our states "out west, like Montana, New Mexico, Washington and California. We have long distances between towns and extremely isolated back roads and even logging roads where being without a spare could be fatal. I know, having had blowouts on these backroads and logging roads that may be gravel surfaced. On some of our back roads it could be many days before you see another car. Our drivers use sedans, sport cars and SUVs on these roads where snow storms can come up unexpectadly in the higher altitudes starting in late August all the way through May. Like I said, this is a bad idea.

If you feel you have a need for a spare (or two), there is nothing preventing you from carrying one. In my years driving around on logging roads in Washington state, I don't think I've ever needed a spare tire. And most people don't drive passenger cars on logging roads anyway.

Ha! ha! our regular taxi driver in Bariloche, Argentina had four spare wheels in his trunk and often used them all to take us to the airport...but mind you, this was Argentina, where they use regular house glass on car front windshields, where the average car cost the same as a house and you needed to perform maintenance on them like an airplane

I do put a can of fix a flat in my trunk, but this is not in place of a spare, it is in case my girls find themselves someplace that their relying on strangers is an unsafe proposition, so they can get someplace to get if swapped safely. I even swapped out the cheesy imported 50 mph tire, if you are driving 50 mph on the freeway in Seattle at noon you are a hazard.

I drove halfway across Utah on a 50 mile donut after my tire was shredded. It was my own fault for letting the pressure get too low too many times and then driving aggressively. If you take care of your car and tires and drive less aggresively you'll rarely need more than fix-a-flat. I don't even carry a jack anymore.